I’m still writing, still have my novel-in-progress and am excited that I finally moved myself and submitted an essay to a website I admire and that publishes amazing essays, Full Grown People The awesome editor Jennifer Niesslein liked my work and this past July she published it. Hope you like it too. Look for more thoughts and shared information on my Writing Frame of Mind. This site may have sat idle for awhile but hasn’t been kicked to the curb, not yet. While absent I’ve been reading and working a lot and have much to share.

Once you are far enough into writing a novel and really committed to the story, the next big leap into the writing world is to open yourself up to readers for feedback. I’ve had many of my short pieces critiqued in writing classes and benefited from the nurturing and enlightening environment. But, I have been unabashedly insecure to let anyone read the novel I’ve been working on for the last three years. My reluctance to put my writing of “Lupita’s story ” on a viewing cutting block, where I know it needs to go to make it better, is as illusional as ~ if I don’t think about it, it won’t happen.”

An author I admire for all she gives to the writing community is Jody Hedlund. In a recent blog post The Unnecessary Shame Writers Feel When Getting Feedback she wrote “No matter our skill level, no matter how many years we’ve been writing, no matter how many books we have under our belts, all writers need help with editing and usually lots of it”

Hedlund’s words couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Learning what my job as a story teller is and having validation that it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time out, has me (almost) ready to submit pages of my Work-In-Progress. *WIP*

Like this:

While temporarily back in Canada we are renting a third floor condo, overlooking a lawn bowling field. I have a full view of the players from the window where I sit and write. It’s not one of those games that captures your attention with action and boisterous shouts of encouragement. Even on tournament days when the field is awash with regal white figures there are no spectators thronged on the sidelines cheering for their team or loved ones.

Writing alone, devoid of onlookers and with plenty of opportunity to observe (get distracted) by the muted action below I found myself forming feelings of affinity with the players. My appreciation for lawn bowling’s slow motion complexities increased. I started to see a strong connection between it and my writing life. Maybe you will too.

You don’t just decide to take up lawn bowling after years of inactivity.

Many of the players I see are silver-haired and fit. They move like people who have made a habit of performing activities to sustain agility.

Share

Like this:

Most days you can find me feeling pretty smug about not being a wimp. A possible reason is that I take to heart Winston Churhill’s powerful quote, “Never, never, never give up.” On writing days that are more daunting than others, you might find me chanting, never, never, never, never, never, never, never… ever!

While I have been busy writing a novel that took hold of me a few years ago, technology and publishing has been changing at warp speed. Thankfully, many wonderful writers and social media experts are investing time and energy to share their knowledge to help people like myself enter and keep up with this evolving world.

So as not to wimp out and to never give up on my publishing dream, here I am, jumping into social media. I have been following some interesting people on the internet. You’ll find them on my Writer’s Helping Writers page, but today, I want to share a couple of links to recent posts I’ve found very helpful towards stepping into the world of technology and social media.

Jane Friedman, professor of e-media and former publisher of Writer’s Digest, has a clear take about the Definition of Author Platform . Yes to; “Finding meaningful ways to engage with and develop your target audience.” No to; “self-promotion, hard selling, annoying people.”

Chris Brogan President of Human Business Works, talks about the importance of content in your blog in this post. He says, “Nobody reads ANY blog – If they’re Boring.”

My goal is to not be boring :), not quit, and to create a generous, giving writer’s platform routed in the spirit of the many writer’s blogs and websites that I have been lucky enough to stumble upon…via technology.

Like this:

As I leap into the abyss of creating a writer’s platform I want to give a shout-out to the many fearless writer’s whose blogs I have been silently stalking following these past few months. The list is growing but for now you can find some of their names and addresses by clicking on my Writers Helping Writers page. I’ve absorbed their advice and thoughts about blogging, tweeting, the craft of writing, and the changing times of publishing. Now it’s time to put what I’m learning into practice including weighing in on their sites with some comments and letting them all know how much I appreciate the time they give.

The writing community is a giving, sharing, hand-holding group of people and an inspiration to jump in and be a part of this evolving work-in-progress.

Staying in a writing frame of mind isn’t always easy, but what can you do, when you don’t have a choice. If you’re a writer you’ll know what I mean.

I invite you to stay with me as I share thoughts on what I learn from others, and what I learn about myself in this odyssey called writing. Oh, and along the way I’ll be finishing my manuscript. (public promise to self)

Like this:

My indulgences this holiday season are threatening to turn me into a replica of Henry Moore’s interpretation of the female body.

I’ve been taking a vacation with friends and family who have joined us here in Cabo for Christmas and New Years. I’ve missed writing but I’ve resolved not to beat myself up with the things I’m not getting done, while enjoying our visitors.

Hope all of you are having a wonderful time during this holiday season. I wish you all the best for 2009. Look for me the first week of January, I’ll be back posting then, on a regular basis. I’m imagining now that my first post of 2009 will be along the lines of spying a good diet.

You’ve heard of ipod nano, well there also exists nano stories. Small compact stories that in few words can be considered complete with a beginning, a middle and an end.

Recently I came across a form of story telling I had never heard about, via a publication called Per Contra They are looking for submissions for Fifty-fiver stories. The guidelines are exact. You write a story using only fifty-five words. If that’s not enough of a challenge, in a fifty-fiver, the first sentence has to be ten words, the second sentence nine, the third sentence eight then seven… down to one.

I love challenges, especially ones that make me work on grammar and story structure and I also like to take breaks from long, long stories that some days I wonder if I will ever finish. So I wrote a fifty-fiver and I made myself submit it. Submitting was the real challenge, the writing was fun. But, submitting is when you set yourself up for someone saying, thanks but no thanks.

A few weeks after submitting, I got a very nice, thanks but no thanks letter by email saying they we are sorry they couldn’t use my nano story (no elaboration as to why, because it’s a form letter) but they looked forward to reading more of my work.

Now that I know my fifty-fiver is not going to be published, I can claim sole rights and post it on my blog, knowing my friends won’t reject it. 🙂

Are any of you interested in the challenge of writing a fifty-fiver? I’d love it, if you would post your fifty-five words in the comment space or better yet, submit your work to Per Contra.